The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) announced today that Greg Doucette, a cycling athlete, received an eight-year sanction for a second anti-doping rule violation. The athlete refused to submit to sample collection during an in-competition doping control session on May 26, 2018.

In response to the CCES’s notification of the anti-doping rule violation, Mr. Doucette requested a hearing to determine the violation and whether the eight-year sanction period should be eliminated or reduced. On October 2, 2018, Arbitrator Allen Stitt confirmed the violation and imposed a sanction of eight years ineligibility from sport. The athlete, who resides in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is ineligible to participate in any capacity with any sport signatory to the Canadian Anti-Doping Program (CADP), including training with teammates.

Doucette was a powerlifter and bodybuilder for many years, and failed his first test in 2010 while competing in those sports. After that, he turned professional and began using PEDs [Performance Enhancing Drugs], winning a world champion in professional powerlifting. He was also charged and convicted in 2012 for importing and selling PEDs. As a result of prolonged PED use, his body became unable to produce enough testosterone and he began to receive testosterone shots [under medical advice]. In 2017 he began to cycle, and took out a licence, and was selected for doping control on May 26, 2018, at the Tour de Keji race. He did not have a TUE [Therapeutic Use Exemption], and refused to provide a sample.